New Clips from Barry Levinson’s ‘The Bay’

Get a few last gulps of water because you might be hesitant to get anywhere near the tap after checking out Barry Levinson’s latest film The Bay, or even just these two new clips courtesy of Bloody Disgusting and IGN.

The film (check out the trailer here) focuses on the quaint town of Claridge, Maryland, located right along the Chesapeake Bay. It’s Independence Day and everyone is enjoying the town celebration. There’s swimming, a dunk tank, a crab eating contest, and more.

Little do they know, a short while back, a pair of oceanographers made a horrifying discovery, but both were killed before they could report their findings. Rather than investigate the situation, town officials brushed it off as a freak shark attack and, soon thereafter, the real culprits unleash their wrath on the citizens of Claridge.

In most cases, found footage films feature one incredibly dedicated character willing to risk his or her life and film deadly events in a proper storytelling format, with a beginning, middle, and end. But in the case of The Bay, Levinson opts to assemble his narrative using material from a variety of different viewpoints and cameras. They’re not necessarily complete stories with arcs, but they do more closely resemble what one would expect actual found footage to look like.

The first new clip shows us the perspective of the team of oceanographers. They’re busy investigating the status of the water near Claridge and make a disturbing discovery – a poor fish being eaten from the inside out by isopods. If the imagery isn’t creepy enough, consider the fact that these things actually exist. In fact, at one point in the film, Levinson tosses in this shot of a 2.5-foot long isopod, an authentic photo taken by a sub-sea survey company employee a couple of years back.

The second clip introduces us to one of the film’s many characters, Jennifer. Not only does she have some wicked blisters on her body, but this poor girl was totally abandoned by her parents when she started to show symptoms of isopod infestation – a heartbreaking scenario, as death-by-isopods is something you probably wouldn’t want to suffer through alone.

The clip also identifies a prime structural element of The Bay - the narrator, Donna. The Donna you see in this clip is Donna circa 2012. Back in 2009, when the isopods attacked, she was a college student interning at a local TV station who happened to be assigned to cover Claridge’s 4th of July festival and witnessed the meltdown firsthand. Now, as a survivor, she feels responsible to tell the town’s story and expose the officials who failed to own up to their negligent mistakes and, therefore, were responsible for the lives lost.

If you don’t mind a movie that gets under your skin, no pun intended, The Bay hits theaters and VOD on November 2nd.